1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet feed cassette and an image forming apparatus with the sheet feed cassette, and more specifically, to a sheet-feed cassette adjustable in length and having a cassette body for storing a recording medium and a cassette cover for covering the cassette body, and an image forming apparatus with the sheet feed cassette.
2. Description of the Background
Image forming apparatuses are used as copiers, facsimile machines, printers, and multi-functional devices combining several of the foregoing capabilities. One conventional type of image forming apparatus has a recording head configured as, for example, a liquid discharge head for discharging liquid droplets of a recording liquid such as ink. Such image forming apparatus discharges liquid droplets of a recording liquid from nozzles of the liquid discharge head to form a desired image on a recording medium, for example, a paper sheet.
Such image forming apparatus may have a sheet feed cassette detachably mounted in the image forming apparatus (also referred to as a “sheet feed tray” or “sheet feeding device”).
Such sheet feed cassette typically has a cassette body or sheet feed tray to store sheets and a cassette cover to cover an upper portion of the cassette body. In such case, the cassette cover may also serve as a sheet output tray to which the sheet is output after image formation.
One conventional type of sheet feed cassette has a so-called expandable structure, in which the length of both the cassette body and cassette cover is adjustable so as to store a variety of sheets of different sizes.
For such expandable type of sheet feed cassette, when the cassette body is retracted and the cassette cover is extended, such expandable type of sheet feed cassette may be mounted in an image forming apparatus. In such case, even though such sheet feed cassette may appear to be correctly mounted in the image forming apparatus, in actuality a sheet feed error may be caused by improper setting of the sheet feed cassette. Consequently, an operator may need to remount the cassette body and the cassette cover in the image forming apparatus.
In such case, a sensor might be provided in such image forming apparatus to detect whether or not the cassette body and the cassette cover are correctly mounted. If the cassette body and the cassette cover are not mounted at their correct positions, such image forming apparatus might stop a sheet feed operation and notify an operator of the improper mounting. However, even with such a configuration, the operator must still remount the cassette body and the cassette cover in the image forming apparatus.
Consequently, there is a need for an image forming apparatus with a sheet feed cassette capable of preventing a cassette body and/or a cassette cover from being improperly mounted in the first place, thus preventing occurrence of a sheet feed error.